Dragon Con was a blast and I felt like the DC Comics and Cultural Studies panel went well. I’ve had a few requests so I’ve posted my paper “Discipline & Punish: Michel Foucault & the Suicide Squad” here. Hopefully I’ll get around to posting my paper from last year some time soon, but until then, enjoy this one.

WXL: What originally attracted you to the story of William Moulton Marston and the character of Wonder Woman?

CARSON KREITZER: Well, I was a Wonder Woman fan from way back. Lynda Carter was huge for me. Then, a few years ago, I was writing a play that involved a scene with a lie detector. (1:23, which was produced by Synchronicity in 2009) I was doing some research on the lie detector, and came across all this information about William Marston and Wonder Woman. And bondage. And polyamory. And the two women living together after Marson’s death, raising the children in sleepy little Rye, New York in the 1950’s…. -that detail still just blows my mind. And I thought, Holy Cow! That’s my next play.

WXL: Marston’s original vision for Wonder Woman has undergone significant change over the years. These changes came about through the collective efforts of writers, artists, and the general public. Do you believe this democratic participation has strengthened or weakened the character?

CARSON: It’s gone up and down. She went through some terrible times after Marson died, in the 1950’s and 1960’s. But then, the writers who picked up the mantle of her true strength and feminist core have been awesome. Trina Robbins and Phil Jimenez are the ones I’m most familiar with, but I know she’s had lots of amazing talent creating her stories. I loved the Brian Azzarello/Cliff Chiang/Tony Akins Wonder Woman New 52 relaunch, Blood, Guts, and Iron, which I read as we were rehearsing for the first production in Marin in February. Lasso of Truth is a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, with productions at Marin Theatre Company, Synchronicity here in Atlanta, and Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City. Like the ancient greek myths the story is rooted in, many bards step in to tell the tales. It seems fitting.

WXL: Despite suggestions from certain magazines, Wonder Woman couldn’t legally become President of the United States because she was born in Themyscira. Is there an eligible superhero that you’d like to see in the White House? For our purposes here, you can assume younger American superheroes would wait until they were old enough to run.

CARSON: I guess I’ll say Rogue. Though Zephyr Teachout sounds like a superhero name, don’t you think? With the ability to withstand the corrupting influence of money? Actually, I’m gonna say Elizabeth Warren. She’s a superhero.

WXL: I’ve never seen a play about Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel, or Joe Shuster. How is that you’re able to bring Wonder Woman to the stage, and in a sophisticated and challenging way, before DC Comics can bring Wonder Woman to the movies?

CARSON: Actually, there’s a bit of a movement going on with Comic Book plays! There is a wonderful, heartbreaking play called The History of Invulnerability, by David Bar Katz, about the creation of Superman. And there was just a play in New York called King Kirby, which I didn’t see, but it got great notices. (Bob Kane may still be waiting for his play…) And I don’t know why they can’t get it together for a Wonder Woman movie… although I do have empathy. I think Lynda Carter left some pretty big red boots to fill. She’s so indelibly connected with Wonder Woman, at least for anyone who grew up with the TV show. I actually had no idea how much Wonder Woman had disappeared from the popular culture until I started working on this play. She was everywhere when I was a kid- TV, lunch boxes, the whole deal. It was shocking to audition actresses, and find that they had not had Wonder Woman to look up to, to emulate, as little girls. It is definitely time for more Wonder Woman!

WXL: What comics are you reading these days?

CARSON: I’m a bit more of a graphic novel buff, myself. Art Spiegelman’s Maus got me hooked, let me know what was possible with pen and ink and words. Allison Bechdel’s Fun Home is one of my favorite works of art in any genre whatsoever, and I’m so thrilled she just won a MacArthur Genius grant! I love Stitches, by David Small. The combination of words and images is so potent, in some ways so like theater… But it’s also very personal and internal as an experience: you create all the voices in your own head, and you can linger on any page or image to fully take in the detail or the moment, or rush image to image as you race to find out what happens. My mother actually just sent me Jules Feiffer’s Kill My Mother, which is pretty funny of her. That’s what I’m reading as soon as I get home from Atlanta.